During the last deglaciation the Cordilleran Ice Sheet experienced semi-continuous meltwater events between about 20,000 and 17,000 years ago, according to a terrestrial cave sediment record that has been described and dated.

Microbial physiology conserves phosphorus by reducing phosphorus contributions in membrane lipids and increasing intracellular carbon storage during long-term ecosystem development, according to measurements of a ~700,000–year chronosequence across an Australian dune system.

Observations from a borehole in the Kamb Ice Stream suggest that discrete subglacial discharge events dominate channel melt and sediment transport.

Soils may release more CO₂ under warming when increases in plant productivity mine nitrogen from soil organic matter, according to an analysis of a global dataset of soil organic carbon measurements.

North Atlantic Deep Water formation was only moderately weaker than it is now during the last glacial period, even when freshwater inputs were high, according to an analysis of independent proxy records.

A narrow range of pressures at mid-crustal depth represents a tipping point between silica-undersaturated and silica-oversaturated compositions crystallizing from mafic melts in alkaline–silicate igneous systems, according to a thermodynamic modelling study.

The oxygenation of the atmosphere was a pivotal point in Earth’s evolution. Punctuated environmental perturbations in its run-up laid the foundations for this event.

Presolar moissanite grains are stellar fossils that act as messengers from the cosmos. Nan Liu explores the ways moissanite enables cosmochemists to investigate the origin and evolution of our Solar System and beyond.

Davemaoite is the least abundant of the lower mantle rock-forming minerals. Despite this, it is a maverick that exerts a big influence on geochemical cycling, as Oliver Tschauner explains.

Quasicrystals have structural properties intermediate between crystalline and amorphous materials. They can be synthesized in the lab but, as Luca Bindi explains, they may also be present in natural materials formed under extreme conditions.